Area Code May Cut Off Tardy Car-phone Users

April 15, 1988|By LISA OCKER, Staff Writer

Telephone technicians will work overtime and people will scurry to get cellular phones reprogrammed, but most South Floridians won`t notice when an important part of their lives - the way they make telephone calls - changes on Saturday.

At 12:01 a.m. that day, Southern Bell will ring in a new area code.

The 305 code will split in two, with 407 becoming the new long-distance code assigned to 2.1 million phone numbers from Boca Raton to Orlando.

But don`t expect hoopla to accompany the change.

Southern Bell, which took a no-gimmicks approach to notifying customers about 18 months ago, already has reprogrammed switches to accept the new 407 code.

``All the work has been done,`` telephone company spokesman Buck Passmore said this week.

In fact, some calls dialed with the then-non-existent 407 code slipped through Southern Bell intercepts as early as two weeks ago.

People who don`t know about the area code change won`t find out about it if they dial the wrong one on Saturday. During a two-month grace period, calls with either code will work in the 407 area.

Some people are keenly aware of the area code change. They include those with cellular phones who have realized their phones won`t work if they don`t get them reprogrammed.

Many people with cellular phones have procrastinated in getting them reprogrammed, according to two leading manufacturers. BellSouth Mobility and Cellular One have about 13,000 customers between them in Palm Beach County. Despite warnings that their phones will be useless after the two-month grace period, fewer than half of the cellular phone users have come in for the adjustment, company spokesmen say.

Margaret Belvin, a real estate agent, found out about the area code change in January when she called to ask why the ``roam`` light was on lit on the mobile phone in her Volvo. The light came on when Cellular One reprogrammed its system to accept 407, indicating that Belvin`s phone, programmed only for 305, was in a foreign territory, company spokesman Jacqueline Walls said.

``Yes, I procrastinated,`` Belvin said on Thursday after getting her phone reprogrammed, a process that took about 10 minutes.

Others who know about the area code change are the technicians who have to work this weekend reprogramming telephone systems at large companies.

``We`re bringing in extra people this weekend to make this happen,`` said Don Harrison, spokesman for IBM.